Google: Chrome OS will revolutionize how printer drivers are handled, but not in 2010

One of the major headaches facing companies preparing to launch a new operating system is driver support. Consider, for example, how much Vista’s launch suffered because they significantly changed the driver model from Windows XP: a lot of Vista’s initial bad press was due to shoddy driver support, when hardware manufacturers had had the updated specifications available to them for months.

Google is facing a similar problem with their Chrome operating system. They need to make sure that the slim install has the driver support for the vast majority of devices likely to be plugged into their initial hardware focus, netbooks. Luckily, there are standard drivers for most USB hard drives, flash keys, Bluetooth dongles and displays already available: all they need for these devices is to supply generic drivers.

“The good news is that for most input devices today, there are basic standards that allow them to operate without needing a specific drive for each device,” said Linus Upton, Google’s engineering director for the Chrome browser and Chrome operating system.

But printers? As everyone knows, printers have highly specific, unique and complicated drivers associated with them. It’s why an operating system, stripped of its driver support, weighs in at a mere fraction of its initial gigabyte weight. Google is going to have to contend with drivers when they deal with Chrome.

How are they going to do that? Google’s not saying. “”We want to get out of the business of printer drivers. All the problems related to drivers we want to go away,” Upson said. But they say they have a new, “wonderful printing solution” up their sleeves to get rid of printer drivers once and for all. But that’s long-tail. “If [printer support] is important to you, Chrome OS is not the OS for you in 2010.”